Loving Life One Moment at a Time

My To Do Lists

3 Ducks enjoying the day during my bike ride.Random Creek. -Munster, In

“Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
– Lucille Ball

“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
– Benjamin Franklin

“Do something every day that is loving toward your body and gives you the opportunity to enjoy the sensations of your body.”
-Golda Poretsky

“Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.”
-Deborah Day

You ever get to the grocery store and know that you are forgetting to pick up something. You cover every aisle from produce to toilet paper but that nagging voice is still saying you have forgotten a highly important item like hot dog buns. You drive home, put the groceries away, start on dinner and *&$*$& you realize that you have indeed forgotten the said item and try to decide if you can go without it for tonight.
This happens to me quite frequently. I personally blame sugar and ADD. No worries though, I have learned to conquer this challenge with my beloved lists. Thank God for lists. They organize my days and make me feel very accomplished. Oh the glorious goodness that I feel when I check something off my list. I try to be realistic with my lists, because I find if I have too many items still left on it at the end of the day, it pops my positive bubble. I learned to narrow it down to a few things and throw in a couple of things that I always get done, like brush my teeth or feed my child. That way I maximize my productivity aura.

I noticed the other day though that my lists were filling up with the day to day chores. I was talking to a close friend of mine who was speaking about how she had felt swallowed up by all of the things she had to do in a day. Her days had filled up with all of the to do’s that she felt like there was no time for her. In fact who was she anymore? She couldn’t remember. I thought you need to put your self on the list. And then that nagging voice who forgot the hot dog buns started saying to me that I should take my own advice. Damn voice.

I looked at my recent to do lists and noticed they had been filled up with taking care of a bunch of people/things, except me. I know this lesson. I talk about it a lot and yet, there I was doing the same thing. Where had my bike rides gone? I am sure I have talked before about my excessive love for my polk-a-dot bike(PolkySpot). It is one of my many favorite past times, one of those activities that clear my head and make me feel sane. And then the pedal broke. In my defense, I tried to fix it. In fact, it went on the list. I googled and watched youtube videos but none of it worked, and there Polkyspot sat. Then I had to move the bike out of the way to make room for the camping gear, and the pedal got thrown into the back of my car(A scary place where there maybe a secret society of gnomes living happily and I would never know about it. Shudder at the thought.). Long story short, Fixing the bike got put off the list and a shocking thing happened, the list filled up with other things. Oh there are always other things. If you let it happen, you can easily get swallowed up by the to do’s and forget the you’s. See what I did there? I rhymed, impressive…

I decided I needed to be put on the list. Here is the thing. If we do not make time for ourselves we start to feel run down, our energy is being used but not refilled. Eventually you collapse or walk around like a shell of yourself. Life seems that much more difficult when you are running on fumes. However, if you make the time for yourself, you not only work more efficiently, you teach others to respect your needs and their own.

So what did I do after thinking about all of this? I attached the new pedals to my bike and went for a ride. 30 Seconds into it, I was out of breath. I thought to myself, “I should not have had that last piece of birthday cake, and man I am out of shape!” I happened to look down and notice that polkyspot’s tires were in desperate need of air! Eureka! I rode to the gas station, filled the tires up and took off. It was amazing what a difference adding the air made. Not only was I able to breath but the bike ride was fun. Maybe that last piece of birthday cake wasn’t so bad. Taking time for yourself to reenergize is just like making it a priority to refill the tires. You may feel like you do not have time for a fill up because you have other things to do, but you will get much more done and more likely enjoy the process if you make sure you/your bike are properly taken care of. Imagine that. Going to add learning this lesson again to my to do list.